Posts tagged 2009

With funding all but non-existent as a result of the financial meltdown, Silver Lake was fortunate to get its state-of-the art library approved in the ‘nick-of-time’. Designed by the firm Milofsky, Michali & Cox, construction began in 2008 and is scheduled to be completed and open sometime in the fall of 2009. The award-winning firm has extensive experience in library design and the renovation of historic structures.The new library is located on the southwest corner of Silver Lake Boulevard and Glendale Blvd.

Crowning the top of one of Silver Lake’s steepest streets, the Jones Residence is dramatic and appealing, very much in the spirit of John Lautner. It’s not surprising, given the background of the architects. Frank Escher grew up in and studied Architecture at the ETH (Eidgen�ssische Technische Hochschule) Z�rich. He is the editor of the monograph ‘John Lautner, Architect,� serves on the Board of Directors of the John Lautner Foundation, and has lectured extensively on Lautner�s work in the United States and abroad. Mr. Escher has served as president, and is currently on the advisory board, of the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design.

Escher’s partner, Ravi GuneWardena trained at California Poly Pomona and spent a year studying Art and Architectural History in Florence Italy. He currently serves on the Hollywood Public Art Advisory Panel for the CRA. Mr. Escher and Mr. GuneWardena have lectured on their work in various forums, including The Cooper Hewitt National Design Conference, The San Diego AIA, the 2006 Architectural League�s �Emerging Voices� series, (National Building Museum, Washington D.C., and The Urban Center, New York), at Cal Arts and at Cal Poly Pomona, where they have both maintained posts as visiting faculty. In the summer of 2009 Frank Escher and Ravi GuneWardena were invited by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa to serve on the Mayor�s Design Advisory Panel to the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Commission.

The Silver Lake house designed for Nimrod Erez and Isaac Eisenberg is the transformation of an existing two story 1903 residence into a three story house, with a separate lower level rental unit. I learned about the house thanks to Stan Monahan, who lives n the rental unit on the lower level.

The redesign takes advantage of hilltop views by creating three outside spaces: an upper level kitchen patio facing the street, an upper level deck toward the garden, and a roof deck. The upper level patio serves as an extension of the kitchen, an outside room framing the view of the downtown Los Angeles skyline.

The Master Bedroom and Living Room access the garden deck, with views towards Griffith Park, Hollywood, Century City and the entire Wilshire corridor, and the roof deck provides 360� views toward downtown and the Pacific Ocean .

A main design element is the staircase, which serves as a chimney to provide natural vertical ventilation, leading from the lower level entry porch to the upper level kitchen and dining room and finally to the roof deck.

The subfloors and most wall studs of the original 1903 residence were reused and reclaimed, the brick footings were used for landscaping and walkways. Located at 827 N. La Fayette Park Place in the Silver Lake Neighborhood of Los Angeles.